Pulled Pork

Get a pork shoulder or better, a “Boston Butt” and brine it…equal parts sugar and salt, italian parsley chopped, red pepper flakes and a few cloves of garlic rough chopped. Cover in water and refrigerate for 24-36 hours.

When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 225 degrees, take the pork out of the brine and pat it dry. Then place the pork in a dutch oven cover the outside with olive oil and cover as evenly as possible with chopped italian parsley, red pepper flakes, salt, cracked black pepper and four chopped cloves of garlic.

I’m not leaving out measurements to protect a recipe, I do it by sight based on the size of the pork shoulder. And yes it’s slightly different every time.

Check the pork after 6 hours and be prepared to leave it alone for a total of ten. When the bone can be pulled out without a lot of resistance, it’s done. Then take a french baguette, cut the bread in 6 inch sections and slice open. On both sides place a few slices of sharp provolone…buy a wedge don’t go with deli slices! Under the broiler to melt the cheese and toast the bread slightly.

The key is to have broccoli rabe prepared ahead of time. I buy two bunches of rabe cut the stems off and blanch until it turns bright green…about 5 minutes. Make sure you salt the water before throwing in the rabe. Take a separate frying pan heat a few tablespoons of olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Throw in the rabe and cook down for a few minutes. Then add a few chopped cloves of garlic and finish cooking – less than a minute with the garlic.

The rabe goes on one side of the bread and the pork on the other. If you like add some tabasco and enjoy. Here’s the video as I prepped the pork and got it into the oven early this am.